Duck Dynasty Nephew to Run for Congress

Republican Zach Dasher, nephew of Duck Dynasty’s Phil Robertson, announced Monday morning that he is running for Congress in Louisiana’s 5th district. “I want to help restore America to what she once was—a nation that builds freedom and prosperity on the anchor of God,” Dasher, 36, told the Shreveport Times.

Dasher has a background in pharmaceutical and real estate industries, and he is running on a conservative Republican platform. “Dasher is pro-life and is a strong supporter of the Second Amendment,” stated a press release. “He favors adoption of a Balanced Budget Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, an overhaul of the Department of Veterans Affairs, and a strong U.S. military.”

This race is Dasher’s first run for public office. “We did not send people to Washington to determine our rights. We sent them there to defend our rights, but that’s not what they’re doing,” he said. “They’re taking them away, day by day. They’re forcing us to purchase their healthcare insurance because they think they know better than we do when it comes to managing our private lives.”

Dasher and his wife Jil have four children, and they are members of White’s Ferry Road Church of Christ. Duck Commander Phil Robertson is his mother’s brother. Last year, the Robertson family supported US Rep. Vance McAllister (R-LA5) who was caught this spring on video kissing a married staffer.

Jil wrote about her reaction to her husband’s decision on her blog “The Minivan Tales” Monday morning: “I was extremely reluctant, anxious, and down right resistant, barely sleeping and eating for three days. After all we had just built this great house, we were volunteering with an amazing church, and life was just, well, comfortable,” she writes. “I was afraid to take this before the father [God] because somewhere deep down I knew. I knew that God had been preparing my husband long before I was even in the picture for a time such as this. In fact, He was preparing us all, but I wasn’t quite ready to adhere to the calling.”

For Jil, the decision to run is about following a divine call. A person on the campaign team, she writes, compared his own decision to join the campaign to the Biblical prophet Jonah first running away from God, then choosing to obey. “[A friend] said Zach, you know I sort of feel like Jonah, It’s not something that I necessarily want to do, my life and career are in a good comfortable place, (there’s that word again) but if God is telling me to go to Nineveh, then I will go.”

Prayer, she continued, has been key to her family’s choice to trust God’s call like Jonah. “When Zach told me about his conversation I hung up the phone, went straight to my closet (us moms do that sometimes) and knelt before the Lord. This began the first of many many prayers that I have sent up to the Father regarding this specific decision. My prayer has always been the same and will continue to be the same throughout this process ‘Lord, if this decision would hurt our family, our faith, or your kingdom then please slam the door shut, but if you have called us together as a family to go forth in this mission then open the doors, guide our paths, and give us strength to walk through them.’ I do not know where this path will lead and it may not always be ‘comfortable’ but I will walk alongside my husband as long as the road is before us.”